Jancloes Michel, Anderson Vidya, Gosselin Pierre, Mee Carol, Chong Nicholas J
Health and Climate Foundation, Washington, DC 20005, USA.
Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care, 393 University Avenue, Toronto, ON M7A 2S1, Canada.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015 Mar 5;12(3):2895-900. doi: 10.3390/ijerph120302895.
The first World Weather Open Science Conference (WWOSC, held from 17-21 August 2014 in Montreal, Québec), provided an open forum where the experience and perspective of a variety of weather information providers and users was combined with the latest application advances in social sciences. A special session devoted to health focused on how best the most recent weather information and communication technologies (ICT) could improve the health emergency responses to disasters resulting from natural hazards. Speakers from a plenary presentation and its corresponding panel shared lessons learnt from different international multidisciplinary initiatives against weather-related epidemics, such as malaria, leptospirosis and meningitis and from public health responses to floods and heat waves such as in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. Participants could bear witness to recent progress made in the use of forecasting tools and in the application of increased spatiotemporal resolutions in the management of weather related health risks through anticipative interventions, early alert and warning and early responses especially by vulnerable groups. There was an agreement that resilience to weather hazards is best developed based on evidence of their health impact and when, at local level, there is a close interaction between health care providers, epidemiologists, climate services, public health authorities and communities. Using near real time health data (such as hospital admission, disease incidence monitoring…) combined with weather information has been recommended to appraise the relevance of decisions and the effectiveness of interventions and to make adjustments when needed. It also helps appraising how people may be more or less vulnerable to a particular hazard depending on the resilience infrastructures and services. This session was mainly attended by climate, environment and social scientists from North American and European countries. Producing a commentary appears to be an effective way to share this session's conclusions to research institutions and public health experts worldwide. It also advocates for better linking operational research and decision making and for appraising the impact of ICT and public health interventions on health.
首届世界天气开放科学大会（2014年8月17日至21日在魁北克省蒙特利尔举行）提供了一个开放的论坛，使各类天气信息提供者和使用者的经验与观点能够与社会科学领域的最新应用进展相结合。一场专门针对健康问题的特别会议聚焦于最新的天气信息和通信技术如何能够最佳地改善对自然灾害导致的灾难的健康应急响应。全体会议演讲及其相应小组讨论的发言者分享了从针对与天气相关的流行病（如疟疾、钩端螺旋体病和脑膜炎）的不同国际多学科倡议中吸取的经验教训，以及从加拿大安大略省和魁北克省等地针对洪水和热浪的公共卫生应对措施中吸取的经验教训。与会者能够见证在利用预测工具以及在通过预期干预、早期警报和预警以及特别是弱势群体的早期反应来管理与天气相关的健康风险方面，在应用更高时空分辨率方面取得的最新进展。人们达成了一项共识，即基于天气危害对健康影响的证据，并在地方层面上医疗保健提供者、流行病学家、气候服务机构、公共卫生当局和社区之间密切互动时，最有利于培养对天气危害的适应能力。建议将近实时健康数据（如医院入院情况、疾病发病率监测等）与天气信息相结合，以评估决策的相关性和干预措施的有效性，并在需要时进行调整。这也有助于评估人们根据适应能力基础设施和服务对特定危害的易受影响程度是如何或多或少有所不同的。本次会议的主要参会者是来自北美和欧洲国家的气候、环境和社会科学家。撰写一篇评论似乎是向全球研究机构和公共卫生专家分享本次会议结论的有效方式。它还倡导更好地将运筹学与决策制定联系起来，并评估信息通信技术和公共卫生干预措施对健康的影响。
